Bellwether 93 | Spring 2020

THE BEAT GOES ON

Pioneering

Clinical Frontiers

SPRING 2020 #93

Photo by Shannon

“I’M EXCITED FOR THE CONTINUED EVOLUTION IN VETERINARY MEDICINE AND THE SCHOOL’S ROLE IN FORGING THAT PATH FORWARD.”

DEAN ANDREW HOFFMAN

Our spring issue spotlights one of Penn Vet’s core priorities: advancing health care outcomes and access

What does this mean? It means Penn Vet’s clinical specialists strive to improve medical or surgical outcomes in our patients. It means our academic and community programs seek ways to broaden our base of health care recipients. It means our faculty focus on highly specialized disease prevention and treatment. For example, Penn Vet’s clinical oncology specialists and scientists lead the fight against cancer with revolutionary new treatments, such as FLASH and immunotherapy, and our emergency and critical care group at Ryan Hospital offers extracorporeal therapies, such as plasmapheresis, to address potentially lethal poisonings.

In this Bellwether, you’ll read two stories illustrating the innovative, specialized medicine and pioneering science people across our region — really, around the world — expect from Penn Vet: Sophie the boxer receives a cardiac treatment for humans through a collaboration with Perelman School of Medicine, and Flip Flop, an intrepid event horse, survives potentially life-ending injuries after emergency care at New Bolton Center.

Venturing into the wild, the issue also introduces Penn Vet’s new Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, a first-of-its-kind partnership between the School and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. This exciting new program supports disease ecologists, wildlife pathologists, and wildlife veterinarians in developing evidencebased approaches to wildlife management in the Commonwealth. Among the species facing threats from infectious diseases are the white-tailed deer,

DEAN’S MESSAGE

ruffed grouse (the Pennsylvania state bird), and the black bear. This program aims to protect them all.

I am very proud of Penn Vet’s clinical faculty. Their clinical acumen is renowned. And the deep and compassionate service they provide 24/7, 365 days a year earns accolades too numerous to fully recount. These tremendous men and women train the next generation of clinician-scientists to push the envelope for patients in the years to come. And as more of our students look for career pathways that address the grand challenges facing our planet, Penn Vet is developing broad new educational opportunities to support them.

We are launching several new VMD joint degree programs with other Penn schools, including the School of Arts and Sciences (Environmental Studies), Perelman School of Medicine, Graduate School of Education, and Schools of Nursing and Social Policy & Practice. In the fall 2020 Bellwether, we’ll describe the concepts behind these new interdisciplinary programs and what students might do with the novel opportunities.

For now, I’ll leave you with my gratitude. Penn Vet faculty, students, and staff inspire me, and our patients and their owners remind me how important our clinical services are to people. I’m excited for the continued evolution in veterinary medicine and the School’s role in forging that path forward. You play a pivotal role in this journey — thank you!

Dean Andrew Hoffman The Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine

HUMAN PROCEDURE RIDS CANINE OF DAMAGED HEART TISSUE

BY KATHERINE UNGER BAILLIE

For Karen Cortellino, her nine-yearold boxer Sophie is more than just a companion.

“There’s this bumper sticker that says, ‘Rescue dogs: Who rescued who?’” said Cortellino, a physician from New Jersey. “That’s exactly how I feel.”

Eight years ago, Cortellino adopted Sophie two weeks after the death of the family’s first boxer, and “she’s been Mommy’s baby ever since.” A few months ago, however, Sophie’s star rose even higher: she became the first dog with a particular type of heart disease — arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) — to be treated with cardiac ablation.

Dr. Anna Gelzer, a Penn Vet cardiologist, led Sophie through the procedure, together with cardiology resident Dr. Alexandra Crooks. But the equipment and expertise to perform an

Sophie’s diagnosis of ARVC meant she could suffer a life-threatening arrhythmia, despite starting medications to reduce that risk.

“IT WAS KIND OF A SOMBER PICTURE WHEN SHE WAS DIAGNOSED. SHE COULD HAVE A FATAL ARRHYTHMIA AT ANY TIME: TODAY, NEXT MONTH, NEXT YEAR, THREE YEARS FROM NOW.”

KAREN CORTELLINO Sophie’s Owner

ablation, in which a high energy catheter tip burns tiny portions of damaged heart tissue to restore normal rhythms, wouldn’t have been possible without collaborators from just down the street. At Perelman School of Medicine’s Translational Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory, Director Dr. Cory Tschabrunn and members of his team worked hand-in-hand with their veterinary colleagues to plan out and provide Sophie a procedure that mirrors the best human medicine has to offer.

“The collaboration and close distance between our hospitals allows us tremendous access to all this knowledge,” said Gelzer. “And from our experience with Sophie and other dogs to come, we may be able to glean information that will be valuable to human medicine. It’s the best of both worlds.”

For Gelzer and Crooks, Sophie is a pilot case for a study now backed by two grants that will support cardiac mapping and ablation procedures for six additional dogs. Currently cardiac ablation is available only for pet dogs in two other sites in the world, one in Italy and one in Ohio. Sophie’s case puts Penn Vet on the map. While the equipment necessary to perform ablations is costly, access to Penn Medicine’s translational electrophysiology lab has opened up the possibility that Penn Vet may one day be able to provide committed dog owners a more durable alternative to medication for treating their pets’ arrhythmias.

A SCARY SPELL

ARVC is not an uncommon diagnosis in boxers. Some studies estimate as much as a quarter of the breed may have the inherited disease, which is also prevalent in American bulldogs. But Sophie’s heart was not top of mind in early July, when she had

surgery to repair a torn ligament in her left knee. Two weeks later, Cortellino took her for a followup visit at their local veterinary hospital to have her stitches removed.

“Everything was great and literally we were just about walking out the door when Sophie collapsed,” Cortellino said.

Sophie received emergency care, was transferred to another veterinary facility with a cardiac department, and was soon diagnosed with ARVC. A strikingly similar condition affects roughly 1 in 1,000 humans. In both dogs and humans, the disease, which doesn’t manifest until adulthood, causes a deterioration of the tissues in the heart muscle, leading to occasional episodes when the heart beats very fast.

The condition increases the risk of sudden death. While drugs like beta blockers and sodium channel blockers can mitigate this risk, arrhythmias can sometimes break through these medications.

“It was kind of a somber picture when she was diagnosed,” Cortellino said. “She could have a fatal arrhythmia at any time: today, next month, next year, three years from now.”

Cortellino, capitalizing on her medical training, began researching alternative treatment options. In humans with a diagnosis similar to Sophie’s, the treatment of choice is an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD). But, as Gelzer explained to Cortellino when she reached out about this possibility, that option is not yet tenable for dogs.

“ICDs are designed to recognize human arrhythmias,” Gelzer said. “But they’re not able to distinguish the normal variation in heart rate that a dog is capable of from a life-threatening arrhythmia.”

An affectionate dog awaiting its owners’ return home for work, for example, might get so excited upon hearing a key turn in the door that its heart rate could jump from 40 to 200 beats per minute within the space of a few heartbeats. If that dog was outfitted with an ICD, the device might interpret the rate change as an arrhythmia and misfire, triggering a painful and possibly traumatic shock.

But Gelzer did have an alternative proposal for Cortellino, one that could address the underlying cause of Sophie’s heart condition. The only catch was that it had never been done in a dog with ARVC before.

IDEAL EXPERTISE

When Cortellino emailed Gelzer, the timing was good. Gelzer had been thinking about options for curing cases like Sophie’s for many years. And she had the right kind of expertise to be considering that possibility.

In 2000, when Gelzer was a junior faculty member at Penn Vet, she worked with Dr. David Callans, an expert on cardiac electrophysiology at Perelman School of Medicine. At the time, they collaborated on basic cardiac research, using pig models. Gelzer remembers wishing they could apply the technique of ablations to dogs, which develop heart conditions similar to humans.

Penn Vet cardiology resident Dr. Alexandra Crooks (left) and cardiologist Dr. Anna Gelzer (second to left) led the care for Sophie, the beloved pet of Karen Cortellino, pictured with her son Alex Peña.

Fast forward 15 years: after time away from Penn Vet in positions at Cornell and the University of Liverpool, Gelzer returned and reconnected with Callans. His old basic research lab was no longer operating, but Gelzer continued to reach out to him for consultations from time to time, or attended rounds for human patients in his group.

Roughly a year ago, when discussing one of Gelzer’s cases, Callans connected her with Tschabrunn, who had recently set up his lab in Penn Medicine’s Smilow Center for Translational Research as part of the recently established Electrophysiology Translational Center of Excellence (EP-TCE) initiative, led by Dr. Francis Marchlinski, director of cardiac electrophysiology for Penn Medicine. Marchlinski and the Penn EP team have been pioneers in the evaluation and treatment of patients with inherited arrhythmia disorders like ARVC.

Tschabrunn’s primary research interests focus on the development of clinically relevant translational research models to elucidate the underlying pathophysiology and mechanisms of complex arrhythmias and the creation of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for treating cardiovascular diseases. He also performs, in close collaboration with Marchlinski and with support from the Winkelman Family Fund in Cardiovascular Innovation, clinical research in human patients with ARVC.

As such, Tschabrunn responded with enthusiasm upon hearing of Gelzer’s interest in pursuing ablations in dogs, particularly those with ARVC. The two struck up a collaboration that brought the latest in technique and technology in cardiac electrophysiology together with deep knowledge in veterinary cardiology.

“This was an exciting opportunity not only in terms of a research collaboration,” said Tschabrunn, “but we also had the chance to help a patient by combining our expertise and resources that are really only available at just a few institutions in the world.”

NOT A BANDAGE

Ablations are “routine care” for many cases of arrhythmias in people. “You approach the heart through the blood vessel, get in the right spot, and — with all the expertise and knowledge of the practitioner — you can find the damaged area and burn it,” said Gelzer. “And then maybe the patient doesn’t need to be on medications that can have side effects and are in some cases not that effective.”

Gelzer saw Sophie, a healthy dog aside from her heart condition, as an excellent candidate for an ablation. Cortellino, while a bit nervous about putting her beloved dog into uncharted medical territory, was comforted by Gelzer’s and Crooks’s clear expertise, their warm manner with Sophie, and their openness and honesty about the procedure’s upsides — and possible risks.

“I was a little nervous — a lot nervous — but we thought to ourselves, really, what’s our alternative?” Cortellino said. “As my son said, ‘Look, Mom, at the very least, Sophie is contributing to the possible welfare of other dogs.’ So, there was a small element of altruism in putting Sophie through this, in addition to hoping for a more definitive treatment for her condition.”

Before the surgery, the veterinarians gathered data on the patterns of Sophie’s arrhythmias using a device called a Reveal LINQ, implanted just

(Page 11) (Top) A map of Sophie’s heart guided clinicians in making tiny burns to eliminate damaged heart tissue. (Bottom) The Penn Vet/ Penn Medicine team performed Sophie’s cardiac ablation at Penn Medicine in the Smilow Center for Translational Research’s translational electrophysiology lab, which is directed by Dr. Cory Tschabrunn (right of Sophie, with black glasses around neck).

“THIS WAS AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY NOT ONLY IN TERMS OF A RESEARCH COLLABORATION, BUT WE ALSO HAD THE CHANCE TO HELP A PATIENT BY COMBINING OUR EXPERTISE AND RESOURCES THAT ARE REALLY ONLY AVAILABLE AT JUST A FEW INSTITUTIONS IN THE WORLD.”

DR. CORY TSCHABRUNN Director, Perelman School of Medicine’s Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory

beneath her skin. The LINQ — which is also used in humans — records a continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) as a loop recorder, storing abnormal rhythm strips for up to three years, giving clinicians a more complete picture of abnormal heart activity than a quick office visit ECG. That information was used during the procedure to zero in on the correct area of the heart to target with the ablation.

The morning of the procedure, Gelzer used her own car to drive Sophie the short distance from Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital to the Smilow Center. When she brought the dog up to the lab, a full complement of experts awaited her: not only Crooks, Tschabrunn and his team, and Giacomo Gianotti, head of anesthesia at Ryan, but also two anesthesia residents, Penn Vet’s two other cardiology faculty, Dr. Marc Kraus and Dr. Mark Oyama, two other cardiology residents, a cardiology research intern, experts on the machines that were used in the procedure, veterinary nurses, and interested observers.

“The number of people we had in one room for one patient, it blows my mind,” said Gianotti. “Everyone had a specific role, and it took a lot of training and cooperation to get there.”

The procedure was long and complex, taking place in different stages. First, to locate the areas of unhealthy heart tissue that had been indicated by the ECG, the clinicians used an advanced mapping system based on GPS technology called CARTO.

“You put a patch on the bottom and top of the dog,” Gelzer said. “You then use those as your points of orientation as you advance the catheter and create a map of the inside of the heart. It’s great because you don’t have to use fluoroscopy, so nobody is exposed to X-rays.”

The CARTO system maps the voltage of the heart tissue, a technique pioneered by Marchlinski and Callans nearly two decades ago and a continued area of Tschabrunn’s research focus today in both the translational and clinical EP laboratories. Decreased voltage corresponds with diseased tissue. They confirmed these areas by artificially introducing extra heartbeats into Sophie’s normal rhythm. But Sophie’s heart resisted these challenges, a sign that her disease was being kept in check by her medications.

The heart mapping and challenges did, however, allow the clinicians to reproduce the abnormal beats that they had seen on the ECG, giving them more evidence that they were targeting the right areas for ablation. Guided by that information, Tschabrunn used precisely directed radiofrequency to burn millimeter-sized portions of the tissue inside Sophie’s right ventricle, one of the lower chambers of the heart.

Throughout the several-hours-long procedure, Gelzer and Crooks sent texts with updates to Cortellino. “While it was nerve-racking, I really felt that Sophie was in good hands,” she said.

And all went smoothly. “Sophie did amazing,” Gelzer said. “After we were done, we pulled the catheter out, she rested, and then went home the next day.”

PAVING THE WAY

Gelzer and Tschabrunn recently performed another ablation on a canine patient, and they are hopeful that the outcomes from the study will lay the groundwork for ablation to become a more routine option for dogs and their owners.

“My long-term hope for Penn Vet is that any arrhythmia that is potentially ablatable, we will be able to offer ablation therapy,” she said. “It’s not going to be the right option for every owner or dog, but with the right case, the right circumstance, it’s a very promising and rewarding treatment to provide.”

Members of the team on both the veterinary and medical sides share enthusiasm about the information that canine patients will be able to lend to human medicine as well. “There is a lot we can learn about cardiac disease pathology from veterinary patients like Sophie,” said Tschabrunn. “It is extremely difficult or nearly impossible to model human-like inherited cardiac diseases and complex arrhythmias in the laboratory, but similar diseases can occur naturally in dogs. This provides us a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of these diseases and develop new

treatments for human and veterinarian patients alike.”

This type of mutually beneficial exchange highlights the value of a One Health approach to medicine, one that takes advantage of the remarkable similarities between humans and our companion animals, said Dr. Oliver Garden, Henry and Corinne R. Bower Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine.

“If ever there was a thrilling example of One Health in action, this is it,” said Garden. “Sophie’s case brings new heights to our department’s ethos of advanced medicine. And the work of such a transdisciplinary team, in this case involving members of our own esteemed faculty collaborating with experts at Perelman School of Medicine, is nothing short of breathtaking.”

Tschabrunn concurred. “I think the openness and enthusiasm for this type of multidisciplinary collaboration is a major strength of this University,” he said. “It is only possible in places like Penn, which brings together the expertise from faculty across so many diverse schools coupled with extraordinary facilities and resources all on a single campus. There’s always something incredible going on that you can be a part of.”

And Cortellino and her family are reaping the benefits: “Sophie is back to her perky self.”

“IF EVER THERE WAS A THRILLING EXAMPLE OF ONE HEALTH IN ACTION, THIS IS IT,” SAID GARDEN. “SOPHIE’S CASE BRINGS NEW HEIGHTS TO OUR DEPARTMENT’S ETHOS OF ADVANCED MEDICINE.”

DR. OLIVER GARDEN Chair, Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine; Henry and Corinne R. Bower Professor of Medicine

Penn Vet

Sophie did amazing!

Leading Veterinary Entrepreneurship for Social Impact

JUNE 1 – 4, 2020 • PHILADELPHIA, PA

Veterinarians are on the front lines of some of the world’s most pressing concerns. But while today’s veterinary schools promote innovation in research, the path to entrepreneurial solutions to those pressing concerns is not always clear.

Leading Veterinary Entrepreneurship for Social Impact combines the knowledge of the Wharton School and Penn Vet to empower veterinarians to solve global challenges, and play a greater role in society.

In this three-and-a-half-day program, veterinarians will:

• Develop an understanding of the principles of entrepreneurship

• Identify opportunities to advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine

• Understand how to turn a good idea into a viable opportunity

• Explore what veterinary medicine can learn from human medicine in the context of entrepreneurship

James Thompson, PhD, coauthor of The Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook, will facilitate the course along with Andrew Hoffman, DVM, DVSC, Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Source: Mars.com

A session with Jean-Christophe Flatin, president of Innovation, Science, Technology and Mars Edge, a new business within Mars to work with entrepreneurs and startups to meld nutrition with science and technology.

To see how you can make a social impact, and for a course schedule, visit: PennVetLeadership.com 215-898-1776

execed@wharton.upenn.edu

IN LAFITE’S EMERGENCY CASE, LOCATION IS EVERYTHING

BY SACHA ADORNO

Lafite, aka Flip Flop, and his rider/ owner Liza Horan were having a great round at Fair Hill International when an accident mid-course led to a strange chain of events and potentially careeror even life-threatening injuries for the 12-year-old warmblood gelding.

“Something very bizarre happened,” said Horan, who trains at Ironwood Ranch in Lompoc, California, and made the trip with three horses to Maryland for the October 2019 event. “The jump was pretty straightforward, and I thought I had a good shot as far as my approach and distance. It seemed that Flip Flop would jump it quite easily. But when he started to leave the ground, he grabbed his left front shoe in a way that felt like it nailed his leg to the floor. His front leg didn’t come off the ground, and he

Rider Liza Horan and her horse Flip Flop had a mysterious accident at Fair Hill International. Liza walked away unharmed. Flip Flop suffered injuries while fleeing the course. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.

Although some of them looked gory, not all of Flip Flop’s injuries were life-threating. The dangerous lacerations were almost invisible on photos, while the bloodier ones (like these) required stitching but weren’t too risky.

hit the rail of the jump really hard. He went almost vertical with his hind legs and made a heroic effort not to fall down.”

Although the horse succeeded in not falling, Horan was unseated during the accident. Medics attended to her, while Flip Flop galloped away, seemingly unphased. What happened next remains a mystery.

“He didn’t appear frantic when he took off,” Horan explained. “But I realize now he was a bit spooked by my fall — I’d never fallen from him.”

After medics cleared her, Horan went looking for her horse, who’d gotten off course. When horse and rider did reconnect about 5 minutes later in the stables, “he looked like he’d been hit by a semi-truck,” Horan said. “He had multiple wounds and lacerations inconsistent with the accident. A few people saw him on the Fair Hill grounds — we know at one point he was in the parking lot and hit a parked car — but we don’t have a full picture of those minutes after the accident.”

NO TIME TO LOSE

Flip Flop needed immediate medical attention, leaving no time for Horan to retrace his steps. Veterinarian Dr. Bernadette Smith of Equine Veterinary Care at Fair Hill Training Center examined him and found wounds on all four legs. Several were in areas that, if infected, could have meant a poor prognosis for the animal.

“The locations of his lacerations were a big red flag,” said Smith. “Not for the size of them but for where they were on his body — any lacerations on a horse are potentially career- or life-ending, it depends on the location and which structures are involved. Some of Flip Flop’s cuts were near joints — a terrible location — and he needed immediate specialty care.”

Smith referred him right to New Bolton Center, where his case would have the full attention of multiple specialists in one location: surgeons, criticalists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and others who would make any necessary tests and treatments coordinated and swift.

WHEN HORSE AND RIDER DID RECONNECT ABOUT 5 MINUTES LATER IN THE STABLES, “HE LOOKED LIKE HE’D BEEN HIT BY A SEMI-TRUCK.”

LIZA HORAN

“In cases like these, having New Bolton Center as a referring facility can mean the difference between death or life,” explained Smith. “It’s always in the best interest of the horse to be cared for in a hospital that has a full team of specialists on site, where they can do everything needed in good time and as a team.”

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

At New Bolton Center, Dr. Maia Aitken met Flip Flop and Horan. She immediately assessed the full extent of his injuries and checked all his vitals; heart and respiratory rates and temperature were normal.

“He was walking well, but with trauma there can be a lot of adrenaline that can mask underlying damage,” said Aitken, who is double board-certified in surgery and emergency and critical care. “So, we took several radiographs to look for signs of fractures and found none. And then we systematically looked carefully at each joint, each wound, and the joints close to each wound.”

In a full accounting of his injuries, the horse had lacerations on his left axillary region or armpit area, left proximal antebrachium or forearm, and left front heel bulb, where he had clipped his heel during the accident. He also had a large laceration at the inside of his right stifle and gaskin as well as his left hind pastern. There were also two very small lacerations over his right knee — or carpus — that did communicate with the radiocarpal joint, which acts like a hinge in the knee.

“These were the smallest lacerations but also held the most risk,” said Aitken. “I can’t stress enough that prognosis is all about location, location, location. Flip Flop had a large wound over his armpit, which involves a lot of

“THESE WERE THE SMALLEST LACERATIONS BUT ALSO HELD THE MOST RISK.”

DR. MAIA AITKEN

Dr. Maia Aitken

suturing but wasn’t a great risk to the horse. Yet the two onecentimeter lacerations over his carpus looked like no big deal but were the most threatening because of the potential for infection.”

A STITCH IN GOOD TIME...

Flip Flop arrived at New Bolton Center within the window of time where, with specialized and aggressive emergency care, his wounds were treatable.

Aitken said, “We have really astute referring veterinarians who can quickly identify life-threatening locations because they know their anatomy very well, or they can inspect whether the laceration communicates with a joint or not.”

A board-certified anesthesiologist placed him under general anesthesia, and Aitken and her team got to work. To prevent joint contamination from becoming an established infection, the radiocarpal joint was lavaged with a large volume of sterile fluid and injected with antimicrobials. In addition, each wound was thoroughly debrided and lavaged and then meticulously closed with numerous sutures. All of his repaired lacerations were bandaged and he was moved to a padded recovery stall.

“He recovered uneventfully from the anesthesia and was an absolutely perfect patient while he was with us,” said Aitken. In the postoperative period, Flip Flop was treated aggressively with systemic and local antimicrobials as well as pain medication, wound care, and bandaging.

While the horse rested under Aitken’s watchful eye, Horan made the best of a few unexpected days off. “Flip Flop was in the best hands at New Bolton Center — he was recovering nicely and, had there been any complications, he would have received immediate, amazing care,” she said. “While he rested, in between visits with him, I caught up with old friends, including some of the New Bolton Center doctors, whom I knew from taking horses to Penn Vet when I used to live in the area.”

After a week in the hospital, Flip Flop was ready for the long trip back to the West Coast, where his caregivers would monitor his wounds and ease him back into a regular routine.

Now home in California, Horan remains haunted by what happened in the missing minutes after Flip Flop’s accident. The horse, however, doesn’t appear too concerned. “It looks like he’s going to make a full recovery and won’t miss any part of the competition season,” she said. “It’s amazing. And it’s thanks to Penn Vet.”

Flip Flop recovered at New Bolton Center and home without a care in the world.

“IT LOOKS LIKE HE’S GOING TO MAKE A FULL RECOVERY AND WON’T MISS ANY PART OF THE COMPETITION SEASON. IT’S AMAZING.”

LIZA HORAN

WILDLIFE DISEASE

BY KATHERINE UNGER BAILLIE

WHEN WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST DR. MATTHEW SCHNUPP, DIRECTOR OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GAME COMMISSION’S BUREAU OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, BEGAN HIS CAREER, THE EMPHASIS WAS ON CONSERVING HABITAT.

“The paradigm of wildlife management for the last 20 years has been habitat management,” he said, aiming to conserve the land and ecosystems animals require to thrive.

And while protecting habitat in the face of an expanding human population remains a critical priority, he sees a new paradigm emerging as infections like chronic wasting disease (CWD), white-nose syndrome, and West Nile virus take a toll on animals and the people who value them.

“I would venture to say that, in the next 20 to 30 years, the new model for management will be ensuring the resiliency of wildlife populations through wildlife health issues,” said Schnupp. That’s where Penn’s animal health expertise comes in.

In a new partnership, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) have united to support a common cause: protecting the health of wildlife populations across the state. The Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, established last year with $10 million in seed funding over five years from the PGC, charts a way forward for wildlife professionals who aim to safeguard animals from health threats — a goal that has knock-on benefits for humans and domestic animals as well.

Co-led by Penn Vet’s Dr. Julie Ellis, an ecologist, and Dr. Lisa Murphy, a veterinarian and toxicologist, together with Schnupp, the program enables the School to hire new staff dedicated to wildlife health who will work with PGC employees to monitor disease threats, develop research projects, enhance communication and public engagement around wildlife health issues, and respond to challenges as they arise.

“Wildlife health is just so complex,” said Ellis, who directs the Northeast Wildlife Disease Cooperative (NWDC), a network of institutions that provides diagnostic services and other expertise to fish and wildlife agencies in 10 states. “It involves, by necessity, multiple disciplines. You need modelers, you need epidemiologists, you need virologists, and on and on. State wildlife agencies generally don’t have those types of people on their staff. Through this program, we’re working with the Game Commission to identify its needs and help it get ahead of some of the problems wildlife diseases can bring.”

Murphy, who serves as director of the New Bolton Center lab that is part of the three-part Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System (PADLS), said the program is enabling

“

“Through this program, we’re working with the Game Commission to identify its needs and help it get ahead of some of the problems wildlife diseases can bring.”

DR. JULIE ELLIS, PENN VET ECOLOGIST

Complementary expertise — and a shared enthusiasm — characterize the program’s leaders: Penn Vet’s Dr. Lisa Murphy (left) and Dr. Julie Ellis (center) and Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Dr. Matthew Schnupp (right).

the School to create new areas of strength while leveraging what’s already in place at PADLS, Penn Vet, and the larger Penn community.

“It’s really been wonderful to be able to say that we have the basic resources, personnel, and capacity to establish this program,” she said, “but also to identify what we need to do the work even better. We’re building on established expertise here while bringing in new expertise with the support from PGC. That’s what is going to make this effort really special.”

BANDING TOGETHER

The foundation of the new program lies in the complementary backgrounds of its three leaders: Ellis, Murphy, and Schnupp.

Ellis joined Penn Vet in the fall of 2018. In her previous role at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, she established and ran the NWDC, which she continues to direct from Penn. Upon arriving in Philadelphia, she aimed “to bring wildlife health and disease opportunities, especially research opportunities, to the students and faculty.”

Murphy, a Penn Vet alum who has served on the faculty since 2005, had worked with Ellis for years as part of the NWDC. With a long-standing interest in wildlife issues and expertise in toxicology, she also has worked closely with the PGC and other state agencies through the PADLS New Bolton Center’s diagnostics work.

Schnupp, like Ellis, is relatively new to Pennsylvania. He took the bureau director position in January 2018, after a lengthy tenure managing wildlife on a private ranch in Texas, where issues like CWD took up the majority of his time. Upon getting to know the PGC’s operations and priorities, he quickly discovered that the agency’s lone wildlife veterinarian, even while acting in concert with wildlife biologists, lacked the bandwidth to effectively confront a mounting tally of health and disease issues. As Schnupp started to envision a

broader program to address these needs, he and Ellis got in touch, looped in Murphy and began developing a plan to work together.

FORMIDABLE FOE

The first target of Wildlife Futures was a no-brainer; it has emerged as the priority demanding the lion’s share of Schnupp’s time and attention, not to mention the agency’s money. That’s CWD, which is spread by misfolded proteins called prions and causes a contagious and fatal illness in deer. Though CWD has been a problem in states in the West and Midwest for a few decades, it’s a relatively new problem in Pennsylvania, where the first CWDpositive deer was found in 2012.

“CWD is such a hot topic in Pennsylvania,” said Ellis. “The disease’s spread has been difficult to control. It’s also a challenging disease politically because one of the preferred management techniques to control it is culling, and that’s a very unpopular thing to do in a state that sells the second most hunting licenses in America.”

There’s also a lot of “confusion and misinformation and fear” surrounding the disease, notes Murphy. While no human cases have been documented, some scientists believe that such a leap from wildlife to humans is possible. As a result, many hunters submit samples of the deer they kill for CWD testing before they consume the meat. The demand for testing had overwhelmed the PGC, and test results were taking weeks or even months to come back.

“It was clear from talking with hunters that expediting the time it took to provide them CWD test results was tremendously important,” Schnupp said. “That heightened its priority status for us. We

addressed the delay head-on, finding more timely ways to test and notify successful deer hunters who submitted samples.”

To Schnupp, CWD was low-hanging fruit for the fledgling Wildlife Futures Program, and Penn Vet wasted no time in responding. In less than six months, in an effort led by Michelle Lucey Gibison, a new, USDA-accredited lab space for CWD testing was established at New Bolton Center, opening in December. The increased testing capacity aims to offer the PGC and hunters results back in seven to 10 days, with the ability to track test results online.

In addition, through Wildlife Futures, PGC, Penn Vet scientists, and others are working collaboratively to devise a science-backed response plan for CWD management that takes into account what is happening in other state agencies both within and outside Pennsylvania.

“Wildlife health issues don’t respect state boundaries,” Schnupp said. “Wildlife Futures is an opportunity to collaborate on research and surveillance. That’s important because we’re not an island.”

POISED TO RESPOND

While CWD spurred the program’s earliest actions, it’s far from the only challenge in its sights. White-nose syndrome, for one, has decimated the state’s bat populations since it was first detected in Pennsylvania in 2008. PGC bat biologist Greg Turner is renowned for his years of research into the fungal disease, and his attempts at control and intervention. The partnership with Penn may lend even more support to those efforts.

“PGC bat biologist Greg Turner is renowned for his years of research into the fungal disease, and his attempts at control and intervention. The partnership with Penn may lend even more support to those efforts.”

GREG TURNER, PGC BAT BIOLOGIST

Research Specialist Jan Yacabucci in the new CWD lab at New Bolton Center

Research Specialist John Armstrong processes samples at the CWD lab

Lisa Williams, PGC Biologist and Program Specialist for Ruffed Grouse

Greg Turner, PGC Biologist and Section Supervisor for Endangered and Nongame Mammals

And for the state bird, the ground-nesting ruffed grouse, Schnupp is hopeful that Penn Vet can expand on the research of biologist Lisa Williams, whose studies have identified West Nile virus as a major threat to the popular game species.

“Typically, biologists are trained to think, well, wild animals die and it’s a part of the natural cycle,” said Ellis. “But with things like white-nose syndrome, West Nile virus, and even chytrid fungus in amphibians, we’re realizing that these diseases are really serious, and have the ability to wipe out local populations and, in some cases, entire species.”

Other current disease threats, from mange in black bears, to lead poisoning in bald eagles, to rabies in raccoons, and beyond, may receive research attention and diagnostic support through the program in years to come.

The leadership team is planning for the challenges that belong to the future as well. First by hiring: in total, a dozen employees across PGC and Penn will be dedicated to Wildlife Futures. For its part, Penn Vet is in the process of bringing on a wildlife pathologist and a wildlife disease ecologist, who will be based at New Bolton Center, and a wildlife communications liaison, who will work at the PGC headquarters office in Harrisburg and act as “eyes and ears on the ground” to ensure Penn Vet’s work is supporting the needs of the agency, said Ellis, and communicating the outcomes of that work to different stakeholder groups, including the public.

“This is more than just providing a service or completing a project,” added Murphy. “It’s a program that will be lasting. We’re assembling a team that will be excited to be on the front lines of what’s next — what are the emerging disease concerns for Pennsylvania and the region — and to put us in the best possible position to tackle them.”

In addition to recruiting new personnel, Wildlife Futures will build a tissue bank to store blood, feather, fur, and other samples from wildlife of all kinds to ensure they are properly archived for later research and analysis.

““Whether you hunt, enjoy having wildlife in your backyard, or just appreciate knowing that there are wild areas out there, this program is supporting the health of those animals and those wild places. It really is all tied together.”

LISA MURPHY, PENN VET VETERINARIAN & TOXICOLOGIST

“Let’s say we identify a disease that we haven’t seen previously,” said Murphy. “We could go to that tissue archive and see, was it present in samples we collected five, 10, 20 years ago?”

As the program progresses and builds, Ellis and Murphy hope to offer opportunities for student engagement. That might begin with a graduate or undergraduate student from Penn analyzing samples that the PGC has on hand from, say, ruffed grouse serum and feathers, but could morph as new Penn Vet faculty build their research programs in wildlife disease.

For now, Schnupp, Murphy, and Ellis aren’t putting a limit on their ambitions for the program. “I think we’re going to be setting the national stage for wildlife health issues,” Schnupp said. “I firmly believe that.”

Their hope is that all residents of the Commonwealth will reap the benefits.

“There are some real opportunities here in terms of preserving wildlife and the environment they live in as a resource that all people can appreciate and enjoy,” said Murphy. “Whether you hunt, enjoy having wildlife in your backyard, or just appreciate knowing that there are wild areas out there, this program is supporting the health of those animals and those wild places. It really is all tied together.”

THE POWER OF PENN VET TRANSFORMS CLINICAL CARE

The Power of Penn Vet Campaign, part of Penn’s larger $4.1 billion campaign, will enable the School to accelerate our impact in the areas of clinical care, research, and education. With its $130 million goal, The Power of Penn Vet will support:

• Training new generations of veterinarians

• Reinventing academic programs

• Transforming clinical care

• Impacting the world

In just its second year, the campaign has already been transformational...

ADVANCING DENTAL AND ORAL SURGERY

Penn Vet is the birthplace of the Dentistry and Oral Surgery (DOS) veterinary specialty. As experts in dentistry and complex oral surgery, like cleft palate repair, Penn Vet’s DOS service is sought by clients from across the nation and attracts the finest students and residents from around the world. The service has expanded greatly over the last 35 years, but its current physical space cannot accommodate future growth in surgical capacity.

The Power of Penn Vet will support a DOS suite expansion and renovation that will:

• Double the space of the dental operatory, increasing surgical stations from two to three, with the option of a fourth station to accommodate busy days

• Introduce technology — TV screens and cameras — at every surgical station to enhance how we teach students and residents

• Establish a space to house a Cone Beam CT unit, an advanced imaging modality that allows for 3D imaging of hard tissue structures

For one of Ryan Hospital’s busiest services, the project’s impact will:

• Deliver care to more patients and significantly shorten appointment wait times

• Generate, with Cone Beam CT, sharper images that will greatly enhance our clinicians’ ability to plan for complex surgeries

• Further our faculty’s understanding of various oral diseases and conditions, including cancers in the head and neck

• Transform how we train future veterinarians, as well as dentistry and oral surgery specialists

Because of its immediate proximity to nine other surgery suites, the Cone Beam CT will provide more efficient care for other surgical patients, such as neurology and orthopedics. This state-of-theart facility will reflect Penn Vet’s renowned DOS expertise.

“This project will build upon Penn Vet’s reputation as a regional and national destination for the most advanced care of companion animals with complex dental and oral surgical conditions.”

DR. ALEXANDER M. REITER head of the Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service

BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEARNING AND CLINICAL CARE

It’s critical that Penn Vet students, the future of veterinary medicine, have access to the most advanced technologies as they gain knowledge and expertise. To support The Power of Penn Vet, the School has begun planning for the new Clinical Skills Center at New Bolton Center. In order to design the best possible facility for our students, a roundtable discussion was held with Penn Vet faculty, house officers, and students to gather input on the design and expectations of the future Clinical Skills Center.

Campaign co-chair and member of the Penn Vet Board of Overseers Gail Petty Riepe, CW’68 PAR’98, hosted the discussion along with New Bolton Center leadership. Students shared their recommendations for an effective learning space, including:

• A large auditorium for medicine lectures and presentations

• Classroom and study spaces with technology to support global learning opportunities

• Space to practice and refine techniques in catheter placements, suturing techniques, haltering, bandaging, and more

• Access to a lab with both large and small animal models

When completed, the Clinical Skills Center will offer:

• A lab for large and small animal simulations with wet lab space

• A clinical skills workshop for model fabrication, and 3D printing

• A 200-seat, flexible use auditorium

• Dedicated space for study areas, break-out rooms, and rounds

• A digital lending library

• A café for students, clients, and faculty

PENN VET TO YOU

Last October, alumni and friends gathered for two evenings of intellectual and social engagement. Part of the University’s Penn to You series, the events featured Penn faculty who discussed the latest in medical and healthcare innovation.

Making stops in Dallas and Houston, New Bolton Center Medical Director

Dr. Barbara Dallap-Schaer sat on panels with faculty from the Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology, Penn Engineering, and the Perelman School of Medicine. Dallap-Schaer spoke about advances in equine imaging, and how what we learn in animal medicine can translate to potential human therapies.

ALUMNI & REUNION

MAY 15-16, 2020

JOIN US

Celebrate your veterinary school memories with events on both campuses. Reunions for classes ending in ‘0 and ‘5.

REGISTER TODAY

For a full schedule of events and to register, visit www.vet.upenn.edu/alumniweekend

For questions or to register via phone, please contact Alumni Relations at 215-746-2421.

RESEARCH BRIEF CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects more than three million people in the United States. The research of Dr. Elizabeth Lennon, Pamela Cole Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine, focuses on immunoregulatory roles of mast cells in inflammatory diseases, particularly in IBD.

IBD is a debilitating, incurable disease; patients are frequently hospitalized and require lifelong treatment with immunosuppressive medications. Despite medical therapy, affected individuals can also develop fibrosis, resulting in intestinal strictures that often require surgical treatment.

The disease is thought to result from a complex interaction between genetic predisposition, environmental factors, an altered intestinal microbiome, and immune dysregulation. Over the last 10 years, the importance of the innate immune system in the pathogenesis of IBD has become increasingly clear.

IBD AND MAST CELLS

Mast cells are innate immune cells that are involved in IBD. Most people associate mast cells with allergy, asthma, and anaphylaxis. Indeed, mast cells are powerful “first responders” that can initiate inflammatory responses and exacerbate acute inflammation. However, mast cells are highly influenced by their microenvironment and may have divergent functions in acute inflammation compared to chronic inflammation.

Lennon made a surprising discovery when she found IBD-prone mice deficient in mast cells actually had worse disease, indicating an anti-inflammatory, protective function for mast cells. In support, reconstitution of mast cells in mast cell-deficient IBD-prone mice reduced inflammation.1 This discovery was echoed by other studies in chronic asthma models, in which mast cells were found to play anti-inflammatory roles2 and additional studies highlighting the integral roles of mast cells in initiating and driving tissue repair, limiting inflammation, and regulating intestinal barrier function.

While the anti-inflammatory effects of mast cells have been ascribed to their ability to recruit T regulatory cells and synthesize antiinflammatory prostaglandins and lipid mediators, Lennon’s laboratory discovered that mast cells control the intestinal levels of bone morphogenetic

(REPRINTED COURTESY OF THE PENN VET RESEARCH NEWSLETTER )

Lennon’s laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health/Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (K01 OD019729 and R03 OD026599).

proteins (BMPs), stabilizing their levels during tissue recovery and repair following cycles of inflammatory flares.

BMPs are members of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) cytokine superfamily and have both anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic activities in the intestine. As intestinal fibrosis is a major complication of IBD, the dual anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic role of BMPs suggests they play a particularly important role in the control of IBD.

Unfortunately, BMPs cannot be administered directly to patients due to their expense and short half-life. Lennon is currently studying the signaling mechanisms that control BMP concentrations in the intestine in hopes of therapeutically manipulating these pathways to increase BMP levels in IBD patients, thereby reducing pathology.

EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS ON MAST CELLS

Psychological stress can induce flares of IBD. Compared to the general population, IBD patients have a higher incidence of psychological disorders, which often precede the IBD diagnosis.3

Stressful life events are also associated with IBD onset and disease flares. The “gut-brain axis,” which is used to describe neural circuitry that facilitates bidirectional interactions between the central nervous system, the enteric nervous system, and the intestinal microbiota has been implicated in the association between psychological disorders and IBD, but the exact mechanisms contributing to increased disease risk are not understood.

Mast cells are essential mediators of the crosstalk between the enteric nervous system and the immune system. Lennon is currently investigating the mechanisms by which alterations in neuropeptide production by central and enteric neurons influence mast cell phenotype and function in her newly generated murine model that recapitulates increased susceptibility to IBD in response to psychological stress.4

IBD RESEARCH AND CLINICAL GASTROENTEROLOGY

Lennon’s clinical curiosity about her IBD patients drives her research, and vice versa. She believes that by studying mechanisms of mast cells in clinical patients (both veterinary and human) she can better understand how these cells limit inflammation. Moreover, because mast cells behave differently in acute inflammation compared to chronic inflammation and are highly influenced by their microenvironment, her assessment of mast cell function in naturally occurring disease provides a more accurate, real-life picture of their role in inflammatory diseases.

Lennon has ongoing clinical studies to investigate mast cell phenotypes in inflammatory diseases. Supported by a Morris Animal Foundation grant, she and graduate student Dr. Jane Woodrow have recently described alterations in mast cell phenotypes and BMP expression in equine asthma.

She also has documented alterations in fatsoluble vitamin concentrations in dogs and cats with IBD. With Ryan Hospital’s high caseload, as well as proximity to Perelman School of Medicine’s Gastroenterology Division and Penn Vet’s Veterinary Clinical Investigations Center, Lennon is excited to harness the translational potential of evaluating mast cell function in the immunoregulation of inflammatory disorders across veterinary and human medicine.

1 Lennon EM, Borst LB, Edwards LL, et al. “Mast Cells Exert AntiInflammatory Effects in an IL10-/- Model of Spontaneous Colitis.” Mediators of Inflammation 2018;2018:7817360 PMID: 29849494.

2 Morita H, Arae K, Unno H, et al. “An Interleukin-33-Mast CellInterleukin-2 Axis Suppresses Papain-Induced Allergic Inflammation by Promoting Regulatory T Cell Numbers.” Immunity 2015;43:175-86 PMID: 26200013.

3 Walker JR, Ediger JP, Graff LA, et al. “The Manitoba IBD cohort study: a population-based study of the prevalence of lifetime and 12-month anxiety and mood disorders.” American Journal of Gastroenterol 2008;103:198997 PMID: 18796096.

4 Lennon EM, Maharshak N, Elloumi H, et al. “Early life stress triggers persistent colonic barrier dysfunction and exacerbates colitis in adult IL-10-/- mice.” Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2013;19:712-9 PMID: 23446335.

IN THE OFFICE WITH DR. CRISTOBAL NAVAS de SOLIS

BY SACHA ADORNO

Equine internist and ultrasound/cardiology expert Dr. Cris Navas joined Penn Vet’s faculty last year, but his history with the School goes further back. From 2008 to 2012, Navas was a cardiology and ultrasound fellow and then lecturer at New Bolton Center. He left for a few years to teach elsewhere in the U.S. and Switzerland before returning to the Kennett Square area in 2019.

Navas’s main interest is exercise-related deaths and cardiac disease in athletes. “It’s an issue that needs to be fixed and has gained public attention recently,” he said. “We’re learning more all the time as new technologies increase our capacity to collect data, but we need better tools and more knowledge to interpret the data.” He is currently testing wireless heart rate monitor wearables that are streamlined for equine wearers, friendly for users, and better able to collect data from a larger population of horses than traditional wired patches.

At the same time, he’s also using digital technology, such as handheld ultrasound devices, to create an equine telehealth program. “Remote access and telecommunication tools will allow us to access many more people and advise in real time on cases around the world,” said Navas.

Although he works a lot in the digital realm, Navas’s office still has some analog about it.

NAVAS IS CURRENTLY TESTING WIRELESS HEART RATE MONITOR WEARABLES THAT ARE STREAMLINED FOR EQUINE WEARERS.

 Dr. Cristobal Navas holds a surcingle fixed with a W2ND wireless heart monitor.

1 CERAMIC TILE

Jill Beach, a retired Penn Vet professor, is a ceramist. She made this beautiful piece and gave it to me as a goodbye gift when I left years ago. She creates pottery full-time now and exhibits in the area.

2 STUFFED

CARDIOMYOCYTE AND TEXTBOOKS

This soft-toy heart cell, a cardiomyocyte, was a gift from residents. It lights up. It’s sitting against the books I use frequently — you can see they’ve all moved a lot!

3 CATCH-ALL BOX

The box was packaging for a medicine that helps horses with tendon disease. Ginny Reef had a bunch of the boxes and gifted me one. I keep useful or meaningful things in it – little prototypes, flash drives, change, notes. After a bad day, reading thank you cards from students or clients helps — keeping them is a wellness strategy.

4 TOOLS OF THE TRADE

(a) We are trialing this handheld Butterfly iQ ultrasound system. It fits in a pocket or belt holder, which opens many possibilities for on-farm care and telehealth. The image feeds into a smartphone or tablet app and is sharable through the cloud, allowing me to collaborate with other veterinarians in real time. (b) Currently, one of the limiting factors in equine cardiology research is we can’t get information on a large enough population of horses. Tools we traditionally use, like electrocardiograms, provide a lot of information but they’re not user friendly, restricting who can use them. I’m collaborating with a company called Second Wind that makes this wireless chip for humans. We’re testing it on horses now. The animal wears the chip on a belt. The device feeds heart rate information into a smartphone and saves it to the cloud. It holds great potential for large-scale data collection.

5 LISTA AND HER BED

Lista frequently comes with me to the office. She’s a Podenco — a rabbit-hunting hound common in rural areas in Spain. A Swiss animal rescue brought her from Spain to Switzerland, where we adopted her. We knew she was meant for us as soon as we met her.

6 EXTRACTED HORSE TOOTH

This was the tooth of a Thoroughbred filly I once treated. She had one problem on top of the other on top of the other. It all started because she’d had a tooth removed. I kept the tooth.

FARM SHOW

PENNSYLVANIA FARM SHOW

Michael

Russell

(Clockwise from top) The Penn Vet Working Dog Center made a showing at the event. Penn Director of Commonwealth Relations

Smith, PA Governor Tom Wolfe, PA Secretary of Agriculture

Redding, Penn Vet Dean Andrew Hoffman, and Associate Dean of Sustainable Agriculture and Veterinary Practices Dr. Gary Althouse. Dean Hoffman met with the State Officer team from the Pennsylvania FFA organization. Young guests stopped by the booth’s AgExplorers station to learn more about Penn Vet’s role in PA agriculture. Michael Smith and Dean Andrew Hoffman spoke with Representative Barbara Gleim. Children looked at bones on the “yucky stuff” table.

PENN ANNUAL CONFERENCE

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. EVENT

(Above) Veterinarians and technicians attended the 119th Penn Annual Conference, one of the nation’s largest continuing education programs.

(Right and bottom) This year’s pet vaccination and wellness clinic included a human wellness component. Pet owners addressed their own personal dental and health concerns with RNs from Penn Nursing and Penn Dental students.

PARENTS & PARTNERS DAY

(Above) Parents and partners of the Class of 2023 visited Penn Vet for a day to learn about the life of their students from administration, faculty, and upperclassmen, touring Philadelphia and New Bolton Center campuses.

NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION

(Left and below) Penn Vet hosted members of the Iroquois Confederacy, who shared their culture through song and dance. The celebration was held in conjunction with the Penn Native Community Council, Penn’s Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, and the Albert M. Greenfield Intercultural Center.

FACULTY & STAFF UPDATES

Gustavo Aguirre, VMD, PhD, presented IC-200: Potential Treatment for BEST1 Related Retinal Diseases at the IVERIC bio Gene Therapy R&D Investor Day on September 13, 2019. In addition, he published Gardiner KL, Cideciyan AV, Swider M, Dufour VL, Sumaroka A, Hauswirth WW, Iwabe S, Jacobson SG, Beltran WA, and Aguirre GD, “Long-Term Structural Outcomes of Late-Stage RPE65 Gene Therapy,” Molecular Therapy, 2019 (Epub ahead of print). He also published Sudharsan R, Beltran WA, “Progress in Gene Therapy for Rhodopsin Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa,” Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2019, 1185: 113–18. He also published Iwabe S, Dufour VL, Guzmán JM, Holle DM, Cohen JA, Beltran WA, and Aguirre GD, “Focal/Multifocal and Geographic Retinal Dysplasia in the Dog: In Vivo Retinal Microanatomy Analyses,” Veterinary Ophthalmology, 2019 (Epub ahead of print). He also published Krishnan

H, Diehl K, Stefanovski D, Aguirre GD, “Vitreous Degeneration and Associated Ocular Abnormalities in the Dog,” Veterinary Ophthalmology, 2019 (Epub ahead of print). He also published Das RG, Becker

D, Jagannathan V, Goldstein O, Santana E, Carlin K, Sudharsan

R, Leeb T, Nishizawa Y, Kondo

M, Aguirre GD, and Miyadera K, “Genome-Wide Association Study and Whole-Genome Sequencing Identify a Deletion in LRIT3 Associated with Canine Congenital

Stationary Night Blindness,” Scientific Reports, 2019, 9, 14166.

Maia Aitken, DVM, passed the certifying exam and is now a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. She joins the ranks of “double-boarded” clinicians, having previously achieved board certification with the American College of Veterinary Surgery.

Montserrat Anguera, PhD, received the Lupus Foundation of America Impact Award.

William Beltran, DVM, PhD, presented “Gene Therapy for Inherited Retinal Diseases: From Curing Lancelot to Treating People” at the Universidad de Alicante, Spain, in October 2019. He also presented “Avances en Terapia Génica Retiniana: El Caso de la Retinosis Pigmentaria Ligada al X” at the Annual RETIMUR foundation meeting in Murcia, Spain, in October 2019. He also presented “Progress in Retinal Gene Therapies: The Example of RPGR-XLRP at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu,” in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2019. As the Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine in December 2019, he presented on “Gene Therapy for Retinal Degenerative Diseases: Past Success and Future Challenges, Through the Eyes of Man’s Best Friend.” He published Gardiner KL, Cideciyan AV, Swider M, Dufour VL, Sumaroka A, Hauswirth WW, Iwabe S, Jacobson SG, Beltran WA, and Aguirre GD, “Long-Term Structural Outcomes of Late-

Welcome,

Dr. Katrin Hinrichs!

Dr. Katrin Hinrichs, a Penn alumna and internationally renowned expert in equine reproductive medicine, has been appointed the new chair of the Department of Clinical Studies at New Bolton Center.

As department chair, Hinrichs will also hold the Dr. Harry Werner Professorship in Equine Medicine, the centerpiece of a broader program for equine wellness and welfare at New Bolton Center. She joined the School in March from Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Science’s Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology.

Stage RPE65 Gene Therapy,” Molecular Therapy, 2019 (Epub ahead of print). He also published Sudharsan R and Beltran WA, “Progress in Gene Therapy for Rhodopsin Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa,” Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2019, 1185: 113–18. He also published Iwabe S, Dufour VL, Guzmán JM, Holle DM, Cohen JA, Beltran WA, and Aguirre GD, “Focal/multifocal and geographic retinal dysplasia in the dog-In vivo retinal microanatomy analyses,” Veterinary Ophthalmology, 2019 (Epub ahead of print).

Ana Castejon, DVM, received the Debra B. Smith Journal of Veterinary Dentistry Editor’s Award for her publication, “Treatment Outcome of 22 Dogs with Masticatory Muscle Myositis (1999–2015),” Journal of Veterinary Dentistry, 2018, (35)4: 281–89.

Diane Gaertner, DVM, was named Associate Vice Provost for University Laboratory Animal Resources.

Hannah Galantino-Homer, VMD, PhD, DACT, presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the ACVP in San Antonio. Her topic was “The Contribution of Keratinocyte Stress to Equine Laminitis Pathogenesis; Macro- and Micro-Anatomical Lesions and Up-Regulation of a Stress Marker, Grp78/BiP.” Her collaborators are Julie B. Engiles, VMD, DACVP, Lynne Cassimeris, PhD, Bettina Wagner, DVM, Caitlin Armstrong, and Kimberly Hildreth, V’21. She published Armstrong C, Cassimeris L, Santos CDS, Micoogullari Y, Wagner B, Babasyan S, Brooks S, GalantinoHomer H, “The Expression of Equine Keratins K42 and K124 Is Restricted to the Hoof Epidermal lamellae of Equus Caballus,” PLOS One 2019, 14(9): e0219234.

Urs Giger, Dr med vet, the Charlotte Newton Sheppard Endowed Professor of Medicine, retired after a 35-year career of research, teaching, and clinical practice at Penn Vet.

Inventors of the Year

Fuyu Guan, PhD, published Guan F, You Y, Li X, and Robinson MA, “A Comprehensive Approach to Detecting Multitudinous Bioactive Peptides in Equine Plasma and Urine Using HILIC Coupled to High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry,” Drug Testing and Analysis, 2019, 11(9): 1308–25.

Ronald Harty, PhD, published Han Z, Dash S, Sagum C, Ruthel G, Jaladanki CK, Berry CT, Schwoerer MP, Harty NM, Freedman BD, Bedford MT, Fan H, Sidhu SS, Sudol M, Shtanko O, and Harty RN, “Modular Mimicry and Engagement of the Hippo Pathway by Marburg Virus VP40: Implications for Filovirus Biology and Budding,” PLOS Pathogens, January 6, 2020, https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1008231.

Joan Hendricks, VMD, PhD, was honored to receive the Philadelphia Zoo’s Distinguished Service Award at a gala attended by Dean Hoffman and an entire table of students. She was also a keynote speaker at the second annual Royal Canin

Three Penn Vet researchers received the Penn Center for Innovation’s 2019 Annual Commercialization Awards, which recognize the University’s six most significant scientific discoveries or partnerships of the year.

Dr. Susan Volk (middle), associate professor of small animal surgery, earned the Emerging Inventor of the Year Award for her novel method of suppressing breast cancer recurrence. Dr. William A. Beltran (left), professor of ophthalmology, and Dr. Gustavo D. Aguirre (right), professor of medical genetics and ophthalmology, jointly received the Inventors of the Year Award for developing novel therapies to treat inherited retinal disorders.

Women’s Veterinary Leadership Forum. And, as she enters her second year on the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative, she hopes that more members of the Penn community, including students, will get involved.

Rebecka Hess, DVM, MSCE, published Anderson JD, Rondeau DA, and Hess RS, “Lispro Insulin and Electrolyte Supplementation for Treatment of Diabetic Ketoacidosis in Cats,” J Vet Intern Med 2019; 1–9. She also published Cai SV, Famula TR, Oberbauer AM, and Hess RS, “Heritability and Complex Degregation Analysis of Diabetes Mellitus in American Eskimo Dogs,” J Vet Intern Med 2019, 1– 9. She also published Lechner MJ and Hess RS, “The Utility of Serum, Plasma, and Whole Blood Glucose Measurement on a Point-ofCare Glucometer: A Prospective Study of 152 Samples from Dogs and 111 Samples from Cats,” American Journal of Veterinary Research, 2019: 1074–1081. She also published Hess RS, Henthorn P, Devoto M, Wang F, and Feng R, “An Exploratory Association Analysis of the Insulin Gene Region with Diabetes Mellitus in Two Dog Breeds,” Journal of Heredity, 2019, 110(7): 793–800, https://doi. org/10.1093/jhered/esz059.

Christopher Hunter, PhD, the Mindy Halikman Heyer

Distinguished Professor of Pathobiology at Penn Vet, has been elected president-elect of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society. He began his term in November and will take office as president in October 2021.

Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, published Murarka M, VesleyGross ZI, Essler JL, Smith PG, Hooda J, Drapkin R, and Otto CM, “Testing Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines to Train Dogs to Detect Ovarian Cancer from Blood Plasma,” J Vet Behav 2019, 32(July–August): 42–48. She also published Otto CM, Cobb ML, and Wilsson E, “Editorial: Working Dogs: Form and Function,” Frontiers Vet Sci, October 18, 2019, https://doi. org/10.3389/fvets.2019.00351. She presented A Prescription for the Working Dog Deficit at the American Veterinary Medical Association, Washington DC on August 6, 2019. She made three presentations at IVECCS in Washington DC on September 8–9, 2019: “K9-1-1: Disasters, Drugs, and Diseases, How Dogs’ Noses Save Lives” (Knowles Memorial Lecture), “Occupational Hazards of Working and Sporting Dog,” and “Disasters Happen: A Guide to Mitigation and Response.” She also presented “Sniffing Out Ovarian Cancer: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Early Detection at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania OB-GYN Grand Rounds,” Philadelphia, on December 5, 2019.

Michael Pesato, DVM, passed the certifying exam and is now a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in the specialty of food animal practice.

Ellen Puré, PhD, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Smith Ragsdale, MSW, was part of the team that received Penn’s 2019 Green Purchasing Award. (See sidebar on page 45.)

Communications & Marketing

Takes the Gold

New Bolton Center’s “Exceptional Care” advertising campaign earned the Gold 2019 Pharma Choice Award in the Animal Health category. The Pharma Choice Awards recognize the best healthcare advertising from the past year.

Philadelphia advertising agency LevLane partnered with the communications team on the campaign, which features key New Bolton Center services. The campaign competed against the top players in the healthcare sector, including Merck, Pfizer, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Penn Vet’s Hannah Kleckner Hall (back row, center) and Martin Hackett (back row, right) pictured with the LevLane creative team.

Laurel Redding, VMD, PhD, obtained board certification in preventive medicine (DACVPM). She published Redding LE and Cole S, “Posters Have Limited Utility in Conveying a Message of Antimicrobial Stewardship to Pet Owners,” Frontiers Vet Sci, November 22, 2019. She also published Redding LE, Kelly BJ, Stefanovski D, Lautenbach JK, Tolomeo P, Cressman L, Gruber E, Meily P, and Lautenbach E, “Pet Ownership Protects Against Recurrence of Clostridioides Difficile Infection,” Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 7(1), ofz541.

Alexander Reiter, Dr med vet, DiplTzt, Dipl. AVDC, EVDC, gave didactic lectures and tutored handson laboratories at conferences in Japan in September, in Sweden in October, and in Austria in December.

Thomas Schaer, VMD, was selected for Penn Health-Tech’s annual Pilot Award Program for the 2020 funding year. Penn Health-Tech expands the university’s biomedical technology pipeline by uniting Penn Medicine, Penn Engineering, and beyond to create transformative technologies that address pressing healthcare needs. His project is An Augmented Reality Surgical Navigation System. His collaborator is Kathryn Wulster, VMD.

James Serpell, PhD, gave invited plenary talks at separate conferences in Italy (Verona), Netherlands (Arnhem), and Brazil (São Paulo) on topics including animal-assisted interventions, one welfare, and canine behavior. He published Edwards P, Hazel SJ,

Browne M, Serpell JA, McArthur ML, and Smith B, “Investigating Risk Factors that Predict a Dog’s Fear During Veterinary Consultations,” PLOS ONE, 2019, 14(7):e0215416. He also published MacLean EL, Snyder-Mackler N., vonHoldt B, and Serpell JA, “Highly Heritable and Functionally Relevant Breed Differences in Dog Behavior,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2019; 286. He also published Starling MJ, Fawcett A, Wilson B, Serpell JA, and McGreevy P, “Behavioural Risks in Female Dogs with Minimal Lifetime Exposure to Gonadal Hormones,” PLOS ONE, 2019, 14(12): e0223709. He also published Shouldice VL, Edwards AM, Serpell JA, Niel L, and Robinson AB, “Expression of Behavioural Traits in F1 Goldendoodles and Labradoodles,” Animals, 2019, 9(12): 1162.

Patricia Sertich, VMD, DACT, hosted a retreat for the 2020 American College of Theriogenologists Certifying Examination Committee January 5-10, 2020 at New Bolton Center’s Allam House. Chairman Dr. Brian Whitlock from the University of Tennessee and Vice Chairman, Dr. Julie Cecere, from the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, conducted the retreat to prepare the 2020 ACT Certifying Examination that will be administered in Pittsburgh, PA in July. Other committee member in attendance included Dr. Ahmed Tibary of Washington State University, private small animal practitioner Dr. Joann Randall of Woodstock, Illinois, Dr. Soon Hon

Dr. Dean Richardson Delivers Frank J. Milne State-ofthe-Art Lecture

In December, Dr. Dean Richardson, Charles W. Raker Chair in Equine Surgery and Chief of Large Animal Surgery, delivered the prestigious Frank J. Milne State-of-the-Art Lecture at the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ 65th Annual Convention.

His lecture — The Tao of Equine Fracture Management — encouraged a shift in the industry’s perception of fractures based on imaging advancements, technology developments, and philosophical changes in recent decades that have resulted in successful outcomes for many seriously injured horses who previously would never have been treated.

Diversity Council

Our School is enriched by the many experiences and perspectives that each individual member brings to our community, and we are committed to building a caring and inclusive environment that recognizes and values every student, faculty, and staff member. To further these goals, in May 2019, we created the Penn Vet Diversity Council. Comprising representatives from the student body, faculty, and staff, the Council is working closely with the Dean’s Office to focus on onboarding and recruitment initiatives, external outreach, resources for the Vet community, and other opportunities to foster a culture of diversity and inclusion across both of our campuses.

Cheong of Cornell University and ACT Secretary, Dr. Kara Kolster of Glen Allen, Virginia.

The residential atmosphere of the Allam House was perfect for the intense work of exam preparation. Tyler Harold provided excellent IT support. Dee Crandall, New Bolton Center librarian, facilitated the team having access to a complete set of reference books and other library resources. Sertich, past chairman, will complete her six-year tenure on this committee this summer.

Deborah Silverstein, DVM, DACVECC, spoke at IVECCS in Washington, DC, in September 2019, and at Cardiopulmonary Bootcamp, Ithaca, New York, in October 2019.

Gail Smith, VMD, PhD, received the American College of Veterinary Surgeons ACVS Merit Award for his major contributions in the field of veterinary orthopedic surgery. In studying orthopedic conditions and developing novel ways to improve the quality of life of veterinary patients, he gained worldwide

acceptance and changed the way musculoskeletal disease is now studied and treated.

Boris Striepen, PhD, published Sateriale A, Slapeta J, Baptista R, Engiles JB, Gullicksrud JA, Herbert GT, Brooks CF, Kugler EM, Kissinger JC, Hunter CA, and Striepen B, A, “Genetically Tractable, Natural Mouse Model of Cryptosporidiosis Offers Insights into Host Protective Immunity,” Cell Host & Microbe, 2019, 26(1): 135–46. He also published Tandel J, English E, Sateriale A, Gullicksrud J, Beiting DP, Sullivan MC, Pinkston B, and Striepen, B, “Lifecycle Progression and Sexual Development of the Apicomplexan Parasite Cryptosporidium Parvum,” Nature Microbiology 2019, 4(12): 2226–36. He also published Pawlowic M, Somepalli M, Sateriale A, Herbert GT, Gibson AR, Cuny G, Hedstrom L, and Striepen B, “Genetic Ablation of Purine Salvage in Cryptosporidium Parvum Reveals Nucleotide Uptake from the Host Cell,” Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 116: 21160–65. He presented the keynote lecture at the National Institutes of Health Malaria Research Program Symposium in Bethesda, Maryland, in September 2019. He also presented the keynote lecture at the 8th National Infection Biology/Microbiology Meeting in Balsta, Sweden, in October 2019.

Andrew Vaughan, PhD, and his colleagues were featured in Quanta (November 15, 2020) and Wired (November 18, 2019) magazines — “Cells That ‘Taste’ Danger Set Off Immune Responses” — for their recent tuft cell work.

Charles Vite, DVM, PhD, gave four lectures on neurology at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in November.

Susan Volk, VMD, PhD, received the emerging inventor of the year award from the Penn Center for Innovation.

Jeremy Wang, PhD, MD, was the 2020 SSR Research Award winner. This is the highest honor for research at the Society for the Study of Reproduction.

GRANTS

Gustavo Aguirre, VMD, PhD, received a $3,761,312 grant from the NIH’s National Eye Institute (NEI) for Development of a Neogenin Based-Strategy to Prevent Photoreceptor Degeneration. The grant spans from December 18, 2019 to November 30, 2024. He also received an $2,316,910 R01 grant from the NEI for Models for Therapy of Hereditary Retinal Degeneration. The grant spans from December 18, 2019 to November 30, 2024.

Jorge Alvarez, PhD, received the 2019 Grant for Multiple Sclerosis Innovation in the amount of $408,163 from EMD Serono. His proposal will use a novel therapy to target B cells in the CNS and potentially treat progressive multiple sclerosis. The grant spans from February 1, 2019 to November 30, 2021.

Daniel Beiting, PhD, received a $30,000 grant from Penn’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics for a HighThroughput Screen to Identify Metabolic Modulators of Intestinal Innate Immune Signaling During Infection. The grant spans from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021.

William Beltran, DVM, PhD, received a $108,000 grant from the Foundation Fighting Blindness Canada for Development of a Neogenin Based-Strategy to Prevent Photoreceptor Degeneration. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021. He received an additional $250,000 grant from the foundation for Anti-Apoptotic Therapy for the Treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021. He also received a $516,281 grant from IVERIC bio for Efficacy Study with GMP Grade AAV2/5-RHO820-shRNA820 Prior to Onset of Retinal Degeneration in Mutant Canines. The grant spans from December 5, 2019 to December 31, 2020.

Rumela Chakrabarti, PhD, received a $792,000 American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society for DLL1 Mediated Notch Signaling in Tamoxifen Resistance of Breast Cancer. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023. She also received a $1,215,000 NIH R01 grant for Deciphering the Function of DNp63 and MDSCs in Tumor Promotion and Metastasis of TNBCs. The grant spans from June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2024.

Sarah Colmer, VMD, received a 2019 ACVIM Resident Research Grant in the amount $9,466 from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). The intent of this funding mechanism is to provide a stimulating research experience for ACVIM residents by working with experienced researchscientist mentors. The grant spans from January 1, 2020 to May 1, 2020. Her collaborators are Samuel Hurcombe, BSc, BVMS, MS, Daniela Luethy, DVM, Michelle Abraham, and Darko Stefanovski, PhD, MS, BS

Ron Harty, PhD, received a oneyear, $30,000 grant from Penn’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics for Ebola Virus VP40-Induced Ocular Pathology and Treatment. His collaborator is Dongeun Huh, PhD

Christopher Hunter, PhD, received a $2,279,502 R01 grant from the NIH for Immunity to Cryptosporidium. The grant spans from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2024. His collaborator is Boris Striepen, PhD.

Christopher Lengner, PhD, received a $575,000 grant from the Shipley Foundation for Phylogenetic Reconstruction of Intestinal Stem Cell Lineages Using Evolving Barcodes. The grant is aimed at building novel genetic evolving barcode systems to reconstruct cellular phylogenies by single cell sequencing in vivo. The grant spans from November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2021. He also received a $2,524,172 R01-HL148821 grant from the

NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for Identification and Preclinical Evaluation of Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Dyskeratosis Congenita. This will build on their prior work in collaboration with F. Brad Johnson at PSOM developing novel therapeutic strategies to address phenotypes associated with telomeropathies. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 31, 2023. In addition to Drs. Lengner and Johnson, the Dr. Andrew Vaughan of the Vet School is a co-investigator on this award. He also received a $2,236,606 grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust in collaboration with investigators from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a Crohn’s Disease

Epithelial Stem Cell Atlas: Pediatric to Adult Continuum. This is part of the human cell atlas project, generating large-scale, patientderived single cell atlas and organoid culture models to study the etiology of Crohn’s disease. The grant spans from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2022. His collaborators are Kathyrn Hamilton, PhD, Kai Tan, PhD, and Judith Kelsen, MD (CHOP), and Meenakshi Bewtra (PSOM).

Jennifer Mahoney, DVM, received a $75,242 grant from the American Kennel Club for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022.

Nicola Mason, BVetMed, PhD, received a $500,000 grant from the V Foundation for Unraveling Mechanisms of Resistance to Checkpoint Inhibition in Canine Urothelial Carcinoma. The grant

spans from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021. She also received a $767,629 U54 grant from the NIH for Rationale Design of Universal CAR-T Cells. The grant spans from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2024. She also received a $595,950 U54 grant from the NIH for Engineering the Next Generation of T Cells. The grant spans from September 25, 2019 to August 31, 2024.

Kyla Ortved, DVM, PhD, received a $22,468 grant from the Grayson Jockey Research Foundation for Robotic CT for Assessing of Bone Morphology. The grant spans from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2021.

Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, received a $47,300 grant from the US Department of Agriculture for Canine Detection of Spotted Lantern Fly Egg Masses. The grant spans from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. She is affiliated with the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. She also received a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for operational support for FEMA and law enforcement missions. The grant spans from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Enrico Radaelli, DVM, PhD, received a $17,018 grant from the Department of Defense/Children’s Research Institute for Development of Therapeutic Strategies for NF1Associated Optic Pathway Glioma. The grant spans from September 30, 2019 to September 29, 2021. He also received a $30,917 grant from the University Research

Foundation for Dissecting the Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Ferroptosis in the Pathogenesis of Impaired Spermatogenesis in Parldeficient Mice. The grant spans from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021.

Shelley Rankin, PhD, received a $38,000 grant from the US Food and Drug Administration for Companion Animal and Animal Food Diagnostic Sample Analysis. The grant spans from June 15, 2019 to May 31,2023. She also received a $28,125 grant from Pets Too for Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Colonization. The grant spans from September 5, 2019 to August 31, 2020. She also received a $49,558 grant from the University Research Foundation for Community Population Prevalence of Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in Dogs and Cats. The grant spans from March 1, 2020 to February 18, 2021.

Laurel Redding, VMD, PhD, received a $39,463 grant from the McCabe Fellowship for the Role of Pets as a Reservoir for Clostridioides Difficile. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. She also received a $15,810 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Understanding and Addressing Consumer Concerns Related to the Use of Antimicrobials on Dairy Farms. The grant spans from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. She also received a $15,576.62 grant from the USDA for the Effects of Colonization with

Penn Vet Wins Sustainability Award

Every year, the University presents its Green Purchasing Award to an individual or team that significantly advances the development of sustainable purchasing practices at Penn. Penn Vet won this year for the positive impact we’ve made in managing print services.

“Our honorees from Penn Vet made smart, responsible purchasing decisions that have resulted in considerable cost avoidance savings while realizing a significant reduction in electronic, paper, and plastic (ink/toner) waste,” said Mark Mills, the University’s executive director and chief procurement officer for Purchasing Services. Over the life of the program, our team has recycled 767 toners, saving 576 gallons of oil and averting 2,150.4 kg of CO2, and reducing printing by 384,000 sheets of paper, saving the equivalent of 256 trees.

The awards program aligns with Penn’s Climate Action Plan, a comprehensive strategic roadmap for environmental sustainability.

Clostridioides Difficile on the Fecal Microbiome of Dairy Calves. The grant spans from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. She also received a $16,467 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for Clostridium Difficile on Dairy Farms and Farm Workers. The grant spans from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Phillip Scott, PhD, received a $626,175 R01 grant from the NIH for Host and Parasite Factors Promoting Disease and Treatment Failure in Leishmania Braziliensis Patients. The grant spans from December 1, 2019 and November 30, 2023.

James Serpell, PhD, received a three-year, $1,136,569 grant from

the Battelle Memorial Institute for Phenotypic Characterization of Performance-Related Traits in Explosives Detection Dogs. His collaborator is Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD

Boris Striepen, PhD, received a $2,337,100 grant from the NIH for Immunity to Cryptosporidium: New Application to Understand the Basis of Immunity in Cryptosporidiosis Combining Molecular Studies with Immunology and a New Natural Mouse Model of Infection. The grant spans from 2019 to 2024. His collaborators are Boris Striepen, PhD, and Christopher Hunter, BSc, PhD

Charles Vite, DVM, PhD, received a $68,182 grant from the ARA Parseghian Med. Research Foundation for Improving Extracerebellar NPC1 Disease Using Intravenous 2-Hydroxypropyl Beta-Cyclodextrin. The grant spans from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Jeremy Wang, PhD, MD, received a $1,037,500 grant from the NIH for Genetic Control of Retrotransposon Mobilization in the Mouse Germline. The grant spans from August 2019 through June 2024.

Brittany Watson, VMD, PhD, received a $49,300 grant from the ASPCA for Establishing a Penn Vet Collaboration for Studies in Accessible, High-Quality Clinical Medicine with a Research Project Examining Metronidazole Treatment in Dogs with Diarrhea. The grant spans from November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020.

(Left to right) Smith Ragsdale, Justin Henderson, Raymond Skwire, and Christine Paris. Not pictured: Jerry Cheng.

STUDENT NEWS

Emily Griswold, V’20, Amy Middleton, V’21, Sarah Rassler, V’22, and Mary Wright, V’22, represented Penn Vet in the Student Quiz Bowl at the 2019 AABP Annual Conference in September 2019. Twenty-seven teams from across the US and Canada participated in the event, with the Penn team placing second overall. This marks the first year that Penn’s Quiz Bowl team has advanced to the final round of the contest.

Lindsay Harris, V’20, will join the Veterinary Business Management Association (VBMA) national team as a regional leader for 2020. She will oversee six to seven chapters and help them grow to provide better business management and professional development education for veterinary students across the US and internationally. Penn Vet is the birthplace of the VBMA and Harris is excited to represent the School as a member of the national team.

Anna Eureyecko, V’22, spent eight weeks during the summer of 2019 working at two small animal hospitals in Prague. At the first location, Panda Veterinary Clinic, she performed her first dental procedure on a dog, extracted multiple teeth, and provided surgical care to exotic animals. At the second location, Veterinary Clinic Jičínská, she performed her first cat neuter as well as multiple necropsies, and closed patients during surgery. She took a few Czech lessons while abroad to

WHITE COAT CEREMONY

In November, the Class of 2021 received their white coats, marking the end of their lecture years and beginning of clinical rotations. At right, Teddy Chase, V’21, delivered “Classmate Reflections.”

help with reading menus and basic conversation. Outside of work, she traveled to Vienna, Český Krumlov, Berlin, Amsterdam, and southern Germany.

Kristen Sprayberry, V’22, published her first article, “History of Predator Exposure Affects Cell-Mediated Immunity in Female Eastern Fence Lizards, Sceloporus undulatus (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae),” in

the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society in October 2019. The study examined how an evolutionary history of stress (in this case, stress caused by the predatory red imported fire ant) affects immune function in response to glucocorticoid (a stress hormone) treatment. Her project collaborators are Penn State’s Catherine Tylan, PhD; Dustin A. S. Owen, PhD;

Kirsty J. Macleod, PhD; Michael J. Sheriff, PhD; and Tracy Langkilde, PhD.

Alicia Amundson, V’22, with the help of other board members and advisor Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, will run the Penn Vet VetPets club, which provides animalassisted therapeutic interactions for University and West Philadelphia communities. Historically the group has volunteered with CGCcertified dogs at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House and undergraduate de-stress events. But this year the group began serving veterans at the VA Community Living Center and expanded its volunteering to Penn’s Wharton School, School of Dental Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Funding from the University’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly allowed the group to fund student enrollment in Penn Vet Behavior Club’s AKC Canine Good Citizen training to boost volunteer numbers.

In addition, a new collaboration between the Penn Vet Wildlife Disease Association and Mercer County Wildlife Center is going strong. As temperatures drop in the fall, many Pennsylvania turtle species hibernate. Turtles who need rehabilitation are transferred from the wildlife center to UPenn veterinary student care, where they receive essential medical treatment and the overwintering environment they need to be eligible for release in the spring. Amundson’s project collaborators are Jill Wallace (co-coordinator), Dr. Erica Miller (advisor), and Dr. La’Toya Latney (training advisor).

Giving Thanks, Showing Gratitude

In October, approximately 50 first-year Anatomy students and their instructors held a gratitude memorial to honor the cadaver dogs used in their Anatomy lab. As part of every Anatomy course, students perform an intensive six-week examination of dogs. By the first quarter’s end, students often feel they know their dog quite well, glimpsing pieces of the animal’s life from meals eaten, physical manifestations of behavioral habits, reproductive history, and general health concerns.

The faculty-facilitated, student-led ceremony lasted an hour and included dialogue about the privilege of using of cadavers and the impact of cadaver use on student learning. The tearful event was powerful, moving, and inspiring.

Human medical schools routinely hold cadaver memorial ceremonies like this. The purpose is to provide students with a purposeful mental break from rigorous class schedules and time to reflect on gratitude, empathy, and respect for their cadavers. This was a first for Penn Vet and will most certainly become an annual event.

BOARD OF OVERSEERS

LUCY ZUNGAILIA JOINS BOARD OF OVERSEERS

Penn Vet is pleased to welcome Lucy Zungailia, C’85, to the Board of Overseers. Zungailia, who also serves on the Thoroughbred Education and Research Foundation board, is a second-generation Penn Vet board member — her mother, Gretchen Jackson, and grandmother, Almira R. Scott, both served at one time.

A Penn alumna, Zungailia is the founder of Oatotes. The company recycles used equine feed bags, turning them into shopping tote bags and donating all profits to Canter Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rehoming retired racehorses. She also volunteers at her parent’s farm, Lael Farm, where they retrain retired racehorses for a second career. Zungailia currently resides in West Grove, Pennsylvania, with her husband and four children.

September 22-23,2020

NEW LOCATION

Drexelbrook Special Event Center

Drexel Hill, PA

MORE INFORMATION

www.vet.upenn.edu/pac

A GIFT WITH THE POWER TO HEAL

Our animals sustain us in so many ways, providing companionship, affection, and devotion. By lovingly remembering your pet, you can make a difference in the lives of many animals and families. With a $500 gift, your personalized inscription will be displayed on the Ryan Hospital’s Always in My Heart pet memorial donor wall for at least one full year. As an added remembrance, you’ll also receive a keepsake photo frame, with your special inscription included on the back. Your gift will benefit animal care at Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital, which treats beloved pets of all kinds. With your support, Penn Vet will continue to provide compassionate care, pursue groundbreaking research, and teach our students to carry on a tradition of veterinary excellence.

MAIL THIS FORM AND YOUR PAYMENT TO (OR CALL 610-925-6181):

Penn Vet’s Ryan Hospital

3800 Spruce Street, Suite 172E, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Name Address City State Zip Code

Email Phone Number

In memory of

Inscription: (limited to 50 characters – 2 lines of text)

PET MEMORIAL PROGRAM

PENN VET ALUMNI, HONOR YOUR PATIENT BY PARTICIPATING IN THE PENN VET PET MEMORIAL PROGRAM

Established in 1982, Penn Vet’s Pet Memorial Program helps practitioners show compassion for their clients who have recently lost a beloved pet, while providing an important contribution to Ryan Hospital. The program provides financial support for the treatment and care of Penn Vet’s animal patients.

COST

• $150 for a pack of 12 cards

• 10% discount on your order of 3 packs or more

• $15 per card if we mail the cards for you

• 50% discount on your order of 10 packs or more, plus the option of sending a monthly recurring gift for payment

www.brookrecognition.com

For more information and an order form, visit www.vet.upenn.edu/pet-memorial-program or call 215-898-1480.

IN MEMORIAM GOODBYE, DEAR FRIEND

In January, the Penn Vet community lost a dear friend when Elizabeth “Betty” Ranney Moran passed away at the age of 89.

Moran was an enduring New Bolton Center donor and client for nearly 40 years. Her generous support of many capital and programmatic projects helped make New Bolton Center one of North America’s most renowned equine facilities.

“We fondly remember Betty as an enormously generous friend and devoted supporter of the School. Betty helped rescue New Bolton Center’s precarious financial circumstances on innumerable occasions, doing so with the utmost discretion so the rest of the School knew little of her consummate generosity. Nor did they know of her persistent efforts to get others to support the School,” said Dr. Alan M. Kelly, Penn Vet dean from 1994 to 2005, and Dr. Robert Marshak, dean from 1973 to 1987, in a joint remembrance.

They added, “Dr. Mark Allam [Penn Vet dean from 1953 to 1973], with his unbound optimism and charm, introduced Betty to New Bolton Center in its early days. He remained her closest friend, organizing carriage driving events with her; mentoring Betty’s oldest son, the late James Moran; and crafting flawless items of period furniture for Betty in appreciation of her bountiful support. Every dean who followed in Mark’s footsteps profited from this special relationship, for Betty remained true to the School for the rest of her life. New Bolton Center would not be what it is today had it not been for this remarkable lady.”

While Moran preferred to work behind the scenes, one of her more visible touches was helping establish the James M. Moran, Jr. Critical Care Center at New Bolton Center. The facility was named for Moran’s son, who passed away in 2008.

“Despite her generosity, Betty never wanted her own name on a building,” reminisced Dr. Joan Hendricks, dean from 2006 to 2018. “Given that, it was my enormous honor that she agreed to allow the state-of-the-art critical care facility to bear her son’s name. Opening this center in 2010 — with Deans Kelly and Marshak and the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture at the ribbon cutting — was one of the sunniest days of my entire deanship. The facility — and the ability to honor Betty and her family — marked a new era of New Bolton’s leadership in providing pioneering care to the sickest patients.”

Moran was passionate about animals from time she was a girl, and her love of horses took her from fox hunting, pony club, and weekend horse shows to steeplechase racing and then to a very successful flat racing career. Her proudest moments in racing were when the horses she bred and owned won

(Left to right) Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, then Penn Vet Dean Joan Hendricks, Mrs. Betty Moran, and then Penn Provost Vincent Price cut the ribbon at the James M. Moran, Jr. Critical Care Center dedication ceremony in 2010.

the Belmont Stakes, the Pennsylvania Derby, the Arlington Million, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and the Grand National in England.

She supported many other organizations in addition to Penn Vet, such as Thorncroft, Chester County Boy Scouts, Community Volunteers in Medicine, and the Chester County Food Bank.

“You have to look hard, but you’ll see the Moran name listed as a major donor on virtually all Philadelphia cultural assets and special institutions near Kennett Square, including, of course, New Bolton Center,” said Hendricks. “I think of New Bolton Center as the campus that Betty built, although the whole community chipped in when Dean Allam was establishing this first-ofits-kind equine and farm animal facility.”

Moran was also predeceased by her husband, James Maxwell Moran (1989). She is survived by five children: Michael Moran (Anne), Frances Abbott (Franny), Elizabeth Legnini (Bob), Ranney Moran (Terri), Caroline Moran, 15 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

CLASS NOTES 1960s

Barry Kellogg, V’66, returned to the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry last year as the owner and chief veterinarian for Veterinary Response, Inc., providing services to the pets of the migrant farm worker community. Over the last three years, the organization has made more than 1,200 animal visits for distemper, parvovirus, and rabies vaccinations.

1980s

Mary Lombardo, V’84, published Rocket and the Donut Man: For the Love of a Dog, a true story about one of her beloved patients. All royalties from sales of the book will go to animal charities.

Howard Steinberg, V’84, MS, PhD, Diplomate ACVP, has retired after 29 years at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, where he was a clinical professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences.

John Dascanio, V’88, was named senior associate dean at the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine. He previously served as executive associate dean of the Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists, currently serving as vice president.

Shirley Yeo Llizo, V’89, received the Outstanding Service Award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for her service as an accreditation inspector since 2003. She was also recently recognized as the 2019 Inspector of the Year in the veterinary category.

1990s

Charles Dunn, V’96, was appointed chief medical officer of Vet’s Best Friend. He will assume responsibility for leading the organization’s veterinary, quality of care, regulatory, and medical affairs activities.

2000s

Sarah Reuss, V’05, a professional services veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim, has joined the board of directors of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.

2010s

Kathryn Bach, V’13, successfully passed her PhD defense examining health in the transition dairy cow in December. Last summer she was awarded first place in the graduate student research presentation competition at both the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and American Dairy Science Association annual conferences; the latter includes a trip to Portugal to present her research at the European Federation of Animal Science meeting. She will also present at the upcoming American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Baltimore.

Jonathan L. Lustgarten, V’13, MS, PhD, is president of the Association for Veterinary Informatics, an organization whose mission is to guide and transform the veterinary profession in understanding, using, and extending the practice of informatics. The association presented its first-ever Allen W. Hahn Lifetime Achievement in Veterinary Informatics Award to Craig Carter, DVM, at the Fetch DVM 360 Conference in August 2019. The award recognizes leaders who have dedicated their career to the discipline of veterinary informatics and the ways in which it advances the practice of veterinary medicine.

In Remembrance

1940s

Lloyd Kornblatt, V’47, passed away on November 27. He began his veterinary career working with large and small animals and cared for Rahway State Prison’s dairy herd as well as the prize Black Angus bulls of oil magnate Armand Hammer. Together with his wife, Dolores, who was his business manager, Kornblatt built Metuchen Veterinary Hospital into a thriving small-animal practice that served the community for more than 50 years.

Robert Leighton, V’42, passed away on January 22. A Charter Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, he completed an internship and then worked as junior staff surgeon at

Angell, before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1944, he returned to the Massachusetts SPCA Rowley Animal Hospital until he was recruited as chief of surgery for New York’s Ellin Prince Speyer Free Hospital for Animals (renamed the Animal Medical Center in 1959). Bob joined the surgical faculty at UC Davis in September 1965, teaching surgery and providing orthopedic surgical care until 1983. His professional contributions were recognized by awards from the California Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, UC Davis, the University of Chile, and the University of Pennsylvania.

1950s

Paul Husted, V’53, passed away on January 3. He had a long career with the U.S. Air Force Veterinary Service; he was commissioned first lieutenant in 1954 and retired with the rank of colonel in 1975. He worked at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences as an assistant professor and administrative head of Small Animal Medicine Service from 1979 to 1989.

M. Phyllis Lose, V’57, passed away on September 30. The first female equine veterinarian in the United States and the third woman in the country to hold a horse trainer’s license, Lose owned and operated one of the world’s largest equestrian hospitals. She was also author of five books, including her autobiography, No Job for a Lady (1978).

1960s

Robert Emas, V’62, passed away on October 22. He practiced small animal medicine and surgery at the Emas Pet Hospital in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, for 54 years.

Carl Rogge, V’62, passed away on September 23. During his remarkable career, he worked with horses at the Hanover Shoe Farm in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and the Equine Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he was director of Dynasplint’s Veterinary Division. Rogge’s lifelong passion was the Severna Park Veterinary Hospital in Maryland; he later built two more animal hospitals. Ten times selected as a veterinarian for the Iditarod, he provided care for sled dogs at checkpoints along the arctic wilderness trail.

Daniel Rice III, V’63, passed away on August 23. Rice proudly served his country in the US Navy as a lieutenant junior grade. He began his career in 1963 at the Shrewsbury Animal Hospital in Massachusetts, before opening his own practice in 1969. After retiring in 2008, he became a volunteer for the NEADS program in Princeton, Massachusetts, where he provided special care for world-class service dogs.

Joseph D. Fecher Jr., V’69, passed away on December 17. After graduation, he joined the Buzby veterinary practice in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, and years later took over the business. Fecher was a celebrated veterinarian in the community for over 50 years.

1970s

Gordon Stull, V’71, passed away on September 8. He provided low-cost care for over 40 years at his private veterinary practice, Vetco Animal Hospital, in Tabernacle, New Jersey, and committed countless hours to local animal shelters, rescues, wildlife centers, and feral animal initiatives. Stull served on the board of directors of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights from 2003 to 2007. He was founder of the Burlington County Feral Cat Initiative, president of Millennium Wildlife Sciences, and project oversight advisor for the Black Bear Neutersol Project, working to develop an injectable sterilant for black bear population control. He was involved with passing the humane law of banning cat declaws in New Jersey. He was also responsible for banning pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. In November 2018, Stull was recognized by Tabernacle Township for his many years of veterinary service.

Gregory Bossart, V’78, passed away on November 19 after a courageous battle with cancer. Bossart worked for over 30 years in clinical domestic, marine mammal, and avian medicine and wildlife pathology at the national and international level. As senior vice president and chief veterinary officer at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, he oversaw the animal care, research, and conservation programs. Bossart was a highly respected veterinarian, pathologist, and conservationist who was committed to advancing the understanding of marine mammals.

1980s

Annette M. Carricato, V’87, passed away on August 18. She was the owner of Mountain View Animal Hospital in Linglestown, Pennsylvania.

2010s

Nicola Painter, V’14, passed away on January 5. She worked in small animal practice and feline medicine exclusively for several years.

SEND US YOUR NEWS

Penn Vet graduates achieve remarkable successes every day. Whether you have a new address, are moving forward in your career, announcing an addition to the family or honoring the life of a fellow alumnus, Alumni Relations wants to hear about it. Please share your news! Visit the Alumni page of the Penn Vet website, email your news to the alumni office at grovessh@vet.upenn.edu, or write to us at Alumni Relations, Penn Vet Alumni Office, 3800 Spruce Street, Suite 172E, Philadelphia, PA 19104. We may edit submissions due to space considerations.

EDITORIAL

Editor

Martin J. Hackett

Contributing Editor

Sacha Adorno

Writers at Large

Katherine Unger Baillie

Contributing Writer

Sacha Adorno

Class Notes Editor

Shannon Groves

Production Manager

John Donges

DESIGN

Designer

Anne Marie Kane, Imogen Design

Photographers at Large

John Donges, Hannah Kleckner Hall, Amanda Mott

Contributing Photographers

Shannon Brinkman,

Lisa Godfrey, Hal Korber

Visual Contributor

Hannah Kleckner Hall

ADMINISTRATION

Gilbert S Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Andrew M. Hoffman

Associate Vice President for Development, School and Center Programs

Wylie Thomas

Director of Communications and Marketing

Martin J. Hackett

Director of Annual Giving

Mary Berger

Director of Alumni Relations

Shannon Groves

Director of Development, Companion Animals

Helen Radenkovic

Director of Development, New Bolton Center

Margaret Leardi

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Sarah Trout

University of Pennsylvania

School of Veterinary Medicine

3800 Spruce Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6010 215-746-7460

strout@vet.upenn.edu

APRIL 2020

APRIL 7

First Tuesday Lecture

Laminitis Management: From Research Lab to the Barn

6:30 PM

Kennett Square, PA

APRIL 24–27

Penn Vet Working Dog Conference

Cherry Hill, NJ

MAY 2020

MAY 5

First Tuesday Lecture

Emergency and Critical Care for the Colic Patient: It Takes a Village

6:30 PM

Kennett Square, PA

MAY 15–16

Alumni Weekend & Reunion

Philadelphia and New Bolton Center

MAY 18

V’20 Commencement

Philadelphia, PA

SAVE THE DATE

SEPTEMBER 22–23

Penn Annual Conference

NEW LOCATION!

Drexelbrook Special Event Center

Drexel Hill, PA

JUNE 2020

JUNE 2

First Tuesday Lecture

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart: Innovations and Safety in Cardiology

6:30 PM

Kennett Square, PA

JULY 2020

JULY 31

American Veterinary Medical Association Alumni Reception

San Diego, CA

AUGUST 2020

AUGUST 14

Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association Alumni Lunch

Hershey, PA

FOLLOW US

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www.vet.upenn.edu

Penn Vet @PennVet @pennvetschool

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None of these articles is to be reproduced in any form without the permission of the School. © Copyright 2020 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam Era Veteran or disabled veteran in the administration of educational policies, programs or activities; admissions policies; scholarship and loan awards; athletic, or other University administered programs or employment. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be directed to: Executive Director, Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600 Chestnut Street, Suite 228, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106 or by phone at 215-8986993 (Voice) or 215-898-7803 (TDD).

LAST WORD

MISCHIEVOUS MILO

“From the day we adopted him, Milo has been a goofball, very playful but not very agile,” said owner Amanda Mott. One Sunday morning, Mott found the kitten moving gingerly and yelping in pain after an unseen accident. She rushed him to Ryan Hospital, where the emergency team identified a right tibial fracture and operated to repair it. After a brief hospitalization and a few months of immobility at home — keeping the curious kitty from moving was a feat said Mott — today Milo is back to his mischievous self.

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